by Keyword: Protein recognition
Mir, M., (2011). Aptamers: The new biorecognition element for proteomic biosensing 
Biochemistry Research Updates (ed. Baginski, Simon J.), Nova Science Publishers, Inc (Hauppauge, USA) , -----
Aptamers are single stranded artificial nucleic acid ligands that can be generated against almost any kind of target, such as ions, metabolites aminoacids, drugs, toxins, proteins or whole cells. They are isolated from combinatorial libraries of synthetic nucleic acids by an iterative process of adsorption, recovery and amplification, know as SELEX (Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment) process.
Aptamers, the nucleic acid equivalent to antibodies, are easy to synthesise, is not required the use of animals for its synthesis, for this reason it can be developed again toxins and small molecules that do not produce immune response in animals and can be tuned for affinity in closer to assay conditions permitting recognition out of the physiological state. So, aptamers posses numerous advantages that make them preferred candidates as biorecognition elements.
In view of the advantages and simple structure of aptamers, they have been used in a wide range of applications such as therapeutics, diagnosis, chromatography, environmental detection, among other.
JTD Keywords: Aptamers, Biosensors, Protein recognition
